Walt Disney’s Fortune: A Story Of Mental Incompetence, Incest And Greed

Walt Disney created what was known to many as “the happiest place on earth,” but his legacy boasts of anything but. Since the passing of he and his children, it appears his grandchildren have been entangled in a financial web sewn of mental incompetence, incest and greed.

It all started when Walt Disney died back in 1966 at age 65 where his two children, Diane and Sharon, were left the entertainment moguls fortune. Of course, much larger now – something to the sum of $400 million – the trust left for the offspring of Mr. Disney has been the source of much turmoil.

You see, Walt Disney made it a point to keep his children and grandchildren as far away from the business as humanly possible to shield them any and all negative effects the business may have on them. As Diane naturally shied away from the public and lived her days in the comfort of her father’s fortune, Sharon had other ideas in mind.

Sharon, more or less settled into the newly discovered pocket of fame left from her father’s passing becoming a model and actress while promoting the same from her own children. As Sharon’s children grew older though, the storm began to brew regarding the money left behind from dear old granddad.

Diane and Sharon eventually passed away leaving the two twins struggling to keep what they had been promised. Although Diane had 7 children preceding her passing, they have little been in the news and are seldom heard from.

Sharon’s children, Brad and Michelle, who are twins, however have been fighting tooth and nail with Disney’s current trustees over who gets how much of the enormous legacy left behind. The story all starts as Brad was born with several mental deficiencies and both children were sent to a posh school for those with learning disabilities.

Come to find out, Michelle was diagnosed with dyslexia and has never held a job in her life. Brad on the other hand was able to maintain several blue collar jobs before purchasing his own UPS store that he later eventually gave up on.

As the twins grew older however, the trustees seemed to deliberately and intentionally drive a wedge between the two in order to fight them separately rather than the collaborated effort. The reason for this was primarily that they earned their wages as a percentage of what was left in the trust.

Obviously, with Brad and Michelle’s money still in the trust, they cut a larger check by the end of the year making it in their own best interest to keep Walt’s grandchildren from their money – a truly disgusting notion of greed. However, the courts eventually sided with the trust, but several stipulations were made along the way.

Michelle, sometime prior, fell into a coma deeming her mentally unfit to run her trust making an easy case for the trustees. From there however, they implemented a planned out attack on the sibling duo where they moved Michelle to Arizona so that one of the trustee’s could personally care for her.

The two reportedly grew apart as the distance took its toll leaving Brad completely alone and allowed the trustees to gain ample evidence to prove his financial immaturity, and thus, his inability to independently manage his trust. According to the former family’s financial lawyer, Robert Wilson, he was able to properly demonstrate this telling the judge:

“At a gift shop, we were looking at a train set,” said Wilson. “There was a red one, a blue one and a green one, and he couldn’t decide which one he wanted. I said, ‘Brad, why don’t you buy all three of them? They’re $15.’ And he says, ‘Oh, I can’t afford that.'” Wilson continued, “The following night, we were at a gift shop on a ship, and they were selling these Russian eggs, and they were around $500 or more each, and I say, ‘Brad, what did you get?’ He said, ‘Look what I got. I got these three Russian eggs.'”

Furthermore, rumors of incest – in order to demonstrate his mental incompetence – were brought about as Brad was asked if he had sexual relations with his step sister’s daughter. Of course he denied this, but he was rumored to spend the next several days in his room highly disturbed from the line of questioning.

Overall, the trustees were validated in the actions by the courts, but the family is none too pleased with the results. Of course, as the payments are about to be disbursed yet again, the family is anticipating becoming entangled in yet another year costly litigation.